In the petroleum industry, much of the crude oil produced is co-mingled with water and gas. It is therefore necessary to provide some means of efficiently and economically separating the oil, water, and gas for separate discharge. Usually the separated water is pumped back into a subterranean formation, and the separated crude oil is conducted to a pipeline for ultimate transportation to a refinery. Separated gas is vented, if in small quantities: if in commercial quantities, it is collected for distribution by a pipeline.
With the rising value of petroleum products, it becomes increasingly important that separator equipment utilized by the petroleum industry extract the maximum possible recoverable petroleum products from a water and oil emulsion. To this end, practitioners have improved separating vessels substantially over the years. Initially, a separator was merely an open vessel providing a quiescent zone with the intention that the water settle out and be withdrawn from the bottom of the vessel and the petroleum float on the water and be withdrawn from the top of the vessel. While this system works satisfactorily to a degree, it nevertheless results in some oil remaining in the form of an emulsion with the withdrawn water and, in like manner, water being entrapped with the oil withdrawn from the top of the vessel. Further, such gravitational settling procedures are slow and to provide vessels of sufficient volume to allow separation by gravitation alone becomes exceedingly expensive, and the reduced rate of low results in overall inefficiencies.
The present invention is directed towards an apparatus for separating oil and water from an emulsion which has as its basic object improved efficiency and effectiveness in separating oil, gas and water from an emulsion.
Thus, it can be said that the primary object of this invention is an improved oil, gas, and water separator. More particularly, an object of this invention is to provide a horizontal separator vessel for separating oil, gas, and water from an emulsion wherein the vessel includes means for subjecting the emulsion to an electric field to enhance the effectiveness of separation and in a manner wherein the fluid flows in a vertical direction as it passes through the electric field.
A still more particular object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for separating oil, water, and gas from an emulsion comprising a horizontal separating vessel including means for passing the emulsion vertically through an electric field and, subsequently, passing the emulsion through a plurality of spaced apart parallel separator screens, each of the screens being of a planar foraminous reticulum of integrally formed relatively small width and small thickness strands, all of which are longitudinally downwardly inclined providing a multiplicity of continuous uninterrupted downwardly inclined paths on which water components from the emulsion may travel towards the bottom of the vessel for discharge.
These general objects as well as other and more specific objects of the invention will be fulfilled in the following description and claims, taken in conjunction with the attached drawings.